MID STATE Orthopaedic & Sports Medicine Center

As a total orthopaedic care center, our physicians specialize in orthopaedic surgery, dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of disease and injuries of the bones, muscles, and tendons, nerves and ligaments in adults and children.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

In 2008, the physicians at MID STATE Orthopaedic & Sports Medicine Center came together again as a team to support this regional sports medicine program. With outreach satellite clinics, physicians are on-site in Jena, Olla, Natchitoches, Marksville and Ville Platte, Louisiana for clinic days. Event coverage and physicals as well as injury evaluations are provided.

All MID STATE physicians have advanced sports medicine training, expertise and experience, and are up to date with all modern surgical techniques and technology. Two physicians at MID STATE have been honored with an induction into the Louisiana Athletic Trainers Hall of Fame.

There is no substitute for sports program loyalty and proven exceptional results: MID STATE Orthopaedic & Sports Medicine Center has been there for two decades and will continue to be "Dedicated to Central Louisiana Athletes and Athletic Healthcare."

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Sports Medicine also extends into the classroom for MID STATE. They were a major influence in establishing a graduate athletic training fellowship at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana. The program provides athletic trainers for the area while they earn advanced degrees from the Department of Health and Human Performance. At Louisiana College in Pineville, Louisisana, working with Dr. Carolyn Spears, MID STATE physicians guided the development of an undergraduate athletic training curriculum that was certified in 2003. In the fall of 2009 a Masters Degree program will accept its first applicants at Louisiana College. All physicians at MID STATE serve as clinical instructors for the Louisiana College trainers program.

Orthopaedic injuries always will be part of athletics and everyday life. Fortunately, the quality of medical treatment and the potential for recovery have never been better. Since the early 1990's when MID STATE became team doctors for Northwestern State University, more than 500 athletes have sustained an injury that required surgery - including several future professional players and over 99% of those athletes have returned to full athletic participation.

Friday, July 24, 2009

It began with organized Friday night football game coverage in the fall of 1988. The physicians at Alexandria Orthopaedic Clinic (later to become MID STATE Orthopaedic & Sports Medicine Center) covered local games along with a few local physical therapists. In the fall of 2008 six (6) physicians, fifteen (15) athletic trainers, and several physical therapists cover over twenty (20) high school and colleges games every week.

In May of 1989, five (5) Alexandria high schools came together for the first multi-school physical day. In May of 2008 fourteen (14) schools participated in the annual high school physical day with over 1300 athletes receiving physicals.

Next was an innovative Saturday morning injury clinic for athletes injured in Friday night games, which was most appreciated by coaches and parents of players. This fall will be the 19th consecutive year for the injury clinic.

Louisiana Sports Medicine Center (LSMC) was created by Drs. Stan Foster and Chris Rich to provide an organized and modern approach to athletic healthcare. The Louisiana College Wildcats came on board in 1989 and the Northwestern State University Demons in 1990. They are still committed today.

Sports medicine, a comprehensive concept involving physicians, athletic trainers and physical therapists, was rare in the United States outside of a few major population centers. In 1991 the MID STATE "office" was extended to the playing fields of Rapides Parish by hiring certified athletic trainers to be on hand for practices and games - a first for the Alexandria area.

"The athletic trainers perform many vital functions in a sports medicine program", Dr. Rich explained. "They are most visible when they treat and evaluate injuries during a games, but they are also vital at practices and in an injury rehabilitation oversight for return to sport".

In 1995, CHRISTUS St. Frances Cabrini Hospital partnered with LSMC after recognizing the strong community outreach of the program, and the number of athletic trainers and services were expanded to what is now CHRISTUS Louisiana Sports Medicine Center.

High school athletes at more than fifty (50) schools in eleven (11) Central Louisiana parishes, Northwestern State University, Louisiana College and minor league sports such as the Alexandria Aces are served by the sports medicine program.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

MID STATE has been ranked #1 in Louisiana for overall orthopaedic services and among the nation's best in hip and knee replacements by independent assessments that consider patients outcome, length of hospital stay and cost. The Center has consistently achieved a 97% satisfaction rating among its own patients.

MID STATE also developed a comprehensive sports medicine network - the first of its kind in Central Louisiana- using athletic trainers, physical therapists and orthopaedic doctors to cover more than 50 high schools, Northwestern State University, Louisiana College and local professional teams. The sports medicine emphasis not only focuses on prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of injuries, it also effectively controls costs to schools and athletes. Dr. Rich recently performed an all inside ACL surgical technique on a NSU football athlete, one of the first of these surgeries in the state.

Many thousands of athletes have been certified to play during an annual high school physical day organized by MID STATE Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Center and CHRISTUS Louisiana Sports Medicine, a unit of CHRISTUS St. Frances Cabrini Hospital that works in tandem with MID STATE. The sports medicine program also covers youth leagues and special championship events that come to the area.

In recent years MID STATE Orthopaedic has opened satelite clinics, in Pineville, Jena, Olla, Natchitoches, Ville Platte and Marksville, Louisiana for convenience of its patients, many of whose families have for several generations trusted MID STATE for orthopaedic care.

Terry Texada, MD, Mark Dodson, MD, Todd Drury, MD, Don Perdue, MD, Michael Leddy, MD, William Crenshaw, MD, Chris Rich, MD and Michael Brunet, MD are the orthopaedic surgeons and Paul Sunderhaus, DPM and Marie Saucier, DPM are the podiatrists at MID STATE. They continue to build on a long history of proven excellence and community services in orthopaedic care in the Central Louisiana community.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Drs. T.E. Banks Jr. and P.M. Davis Jr. opened the Banks-Davis Orthopaedic Clinic in 1949. They founded and staffed the areas first polio clinic. The practice grew and became Alexandria Orthopaedic Clinic in 1971. MID STATE Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Center came to be in 1997 in a seamless transition that reflected and enlarged medical staff and the latest technology and training.

Today the practice features eight (8) orthopaedic surgeons and two (2) podiatrist who treat the entire musculoskeletal system. All are board-certified surgeons, and many are noted for their sub-specialties, including sports medicine. Drs. Chris Rich and Michael Brunet have been chosen Top Louisiana Doctors by their peers in a survey by Louisiana Life Magazine. Brunet is recognized nationally as one of the pioneers in sports medicine.

Doctors at MID STATE have been at the forefront of using new technologies. The group was one of the first in Louisiana to be trained in computer assisted surgery, which uses a precise mapping of a knee joint for replacement. Correct implant positioning, balance, and alignment has been proven to extend the life of the artificial joint.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Orthopaedic medicine has a lengthy history. Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics depict people with injured limbs that are wrapped and braced to promote natural healing. War contributed to advances in orthopaedic medicine as doctors developed basic prosthesis to replace mangled body parts; for example, a hook attached to a cup that fits over the wrist was the substitute for an amputated hand.

The etymology of orthopaedics dates to 1741 when French physician Nicholas Andry coined the term "orthopedia". This was a combination of the Greek word "orthos", meaning straight, with "pais", meaning child. Much of orthopaedic medicine several centuries ago dealt with muscular and skeletal deformities of children.

For many years orthopaedics was a physical specialty. The doctor manipulated bones and joints to restore realignment, and then applied casts or braces to maintain the position until the injury healed on its own. Many maladies - such as hip fractures - were considered untreatable and left to mend on their own, and patients were often left with a lifelong physical handicap.

The modern era of orthopaedic medicine dates to the 1930's when a special nail was developed to hold broken bones together. A few years afterward a metal device was invented to replace the head of the thigh bone (femur) that often would not heal as part of a fractured hip joint. It was during this period of rapid advancement that the forerunner of MID STATE Orthopaedic & Sports Medicine Center was founded.